Julie Adams and the Witch's Dungeon Museum

     "All he wanted was a lady
     When at night he came up from the deep
     He was feeling like any other lonely fella
     Decided to take one while the city was asleep"
          -Dave Edmunds (Creature from the Black Lagoon)

Special birthday wishes goes out to actress Julie Adams who was born on this date in 1926.  Adams is perhaps best remembered for her role as Kay Lawrence, the heroine who is on the unfortunate side of a cross-species crush in the 1954 horror classic, Creature from the Black Lagoon.  It would be hardly her last role in the genre, as she continued to pop up in episodes of Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Night Gallery, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, among others.

The Creature from the Black Lagoon is but one of the many of the life-sized figures classic horror monsters found at the Witch's Dungeon Classic Movie Museum in Bristol, Connecticut.  Adams is seen at the museum in the photo above (courtesy of the museum) with Ben Chapman who played the title role in film in the scenes of the creature on land and unfortunately passed away in 2008.

The museum started as a childhood hobby of fan Cortlandt Hull who started building his favorite monsters from model kits.  As his skills grew, so did his models until he was designing life-sized figures from wax, fine wire mesh, polymers, and papier-mache.  His parents were fully supported of his efforts and in 1966, his father helped build a Swiss chalet-style building to house and display his work.

The Witch's Dungeon Classic Movie Museum has continued to grow and expand in its over forty years of existence and has attracted countless horror celebrities, including more than a few that are depicted inside.  Names such as June Foray, Vincent Price, Mark Hamill, and John Agar even pitched in and recorded the narration for the tour.

Today, Hull opens his museum on weekends in the month of October for people to appreciate his work.  It has become a major Halloween event in Bristol and it is not uncommon for people to wait up to three hours in line to have the opportunity to pass through.  The museum has become so big that it even has its own documentary dedicated to it - The Witch's Dungeon 40 Years Of Chills.

Celebrate Adams's birthday with a visit to the Witch's Dungeon!

-Casey H.